In New England: Warhol does politics in New Hampshire

Tuesday

Nov 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 25, 2008 at 9:18 PM

Head up to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., for the first exhibition of Warhol's political works, through Jan. 4, and you'll see more than 60 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs of political figures created by the pioneer of the Pop Art movement.

Julie Hatfield

Like most, I knew Andy Warhol as the painter of the Campbell soup cans, Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy. I even once sat next to him at a fancy fashion designer party in New York. The man was painfully shy - he could hardly speak - but I saw that he had a keen and observant eye for what was going on around him.

What I did not realize was that observant eye included many political figures.

Head up to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., for the first exhibition of Warhol's political works, through Jan. 4, and you'll see more than 60 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs of political figures created by the pioneer of the Pop Art movement.

The first thing you'll notice on entering the exhibition is the size of most of the portraits; 40 inches square was a favorite size, which makes them much bigger than life. And that's the point, explains curator Sharon Matt Atkins.

"The portraits he painted were of people who were larger than life, in a way," Atkins said.

The works depict John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Carter and Mao Zedong, among others. And the pieces reveal intriguing insights into Warhol's own celebrity status and political leanings - he was fascinated in particular with the Kennedy clan and created a series of works about them, including John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

The Currier acquired a portfolio of Kennedy assassination prints by Warhol called "Flash" in 2005, and Atkins said the election year seemed like a good time to devote a whole exhibition to the political figures the artist depicted.

The print portfolio includes 11 screen prints based on newspaper images, including of the Texas Book Depository, Lee Harvey Oswald and President Kennedy's campaign poster - the basis of the only work by Warhol to depict the president. It also reproduces the teletype text from the four days between the president's assassination and funeral, with the sheets bound like a book.

The opening painting of the Currier exhibit is "Red Jackie," a beautiful depiction of the first lady in a happier time.

Among the other exhibits, there's an amazing wall of gigantic, vividly colored portraits of Chairman Mao, backed by Warhol-designed "wallpaper" featuring the Communist leader's face in garish purple. His "Vote McGovern" poster, depicting Richard Nixon's ghoulishly green face rather than McGovern's, gives a hint as to Warhol's own political leanings.

For more information, call 603-669-6144 or visit www.currier.org.

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